Monday, November 22, 2010

They work! Punched holes in metal jar lids with hammer & nail (ice pick would be simpler, but didn't have one). Mixed paste of powdered sugar and boric acid, a little water, in bottom of each jar. It's working! Ants are crawling in the jars and not up my legs, which are now bite-free.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

My one green thing today: Replaced a conventional lightbulb with an energy efficient model, and how! We easily screwed an LED light bulb, which uses 80% less energy than an incandescent one, into the lovely old green glass leaf pendant hanging in the stairwell. Its warm light many tiny light efficient diode cells gives it the look of a glowing golden beehive. It uses only 8 watts to shine as strong as the 75 watt incandescent we replaced, and, with a correlated color temperature (CCT) of 3000K (kelvins), it produces the same warm glow. With a lifetime of 50,000 hours, our LED will last 10 years if it burns 12 hours a day, and we use it for about half that much time.

In the 20 years of use we can expect from it, we'd save about $200, so the $70 (gulp!) bulb should pay for itself at least three times over, given Hawaii's energy costs, which, at 26.71 cents per kilowatt-hour, are the highest in the nation, nearly treble the national average of 10.54 cents per kwh.

Oh, and it burns at room temperature, so it won't heat the house, and it's mercury-free.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Finally, the FTC says it’s going to start regulating green marketing claims. The agency is publishing a series of Green Guides on the topic. http://urlwww--greencleancertified--com.reachlocal.net/green-cleaning-health/green-watch/FTC-Reviews-Guidelines-for-Green-Claims/. But why the across-the-boad crackdown on fabric labeled bamboo? FTC says it carries the false implication that the product is green, when in reality the processing is highly polluting. The resulting rayon fabric, FTC says, contains no trace of bamboo, so the label is doubly misleading.

True, green labels continue to proliferate to a dizzying degree as companies large and small in every sector jump on the natural products bandwagon. Greenwashing companies charge green premium prices without having to pay for third-party-certified ingredients or production methods. To date there’s been little oversight of these claims beyond USDA certified organic food, fiber and plant-based cosmetics, the EPA’s Energy Star, Water Sense and Design for the Environment (DfE) labels, and stringent private non-profit certifications such as Forest Stewardship Council and Rainforest Alliance.

As almost everyone knows by now, “natural,” “nontoxic,” “eco friendly” and so on are meaningless, per Consumer Union’s Greener Choices excellent ecolabels.org. But at the consumer level there’s been a long-term love affair with bamboo anything, from flooring to furniture to apparel. It’s gotten to the point where the word “bamboo” itself on a clothing label implies green provenance. The rationale was admittedly vague for bamboo, as for hemp. “Bamboo is a grass that doesn’t require pesticides, fertilizers or lots of water,” many company websites say. But they don't verify that their bamboo is actually grown sustainably, much less processed without a toxic footprint. This has bothered me for years.

Now that it’s officially bothering the FTC, I’m reconsidering, especially since the message of their “Don’t be Bamboozled” campaign is so blatantly self-congratulatory. Yes, the processing's toxic and what you end up with is plain old rayon that could have come from any cellulose source. But if you're going to make rayon anyway, isn't it better to encourage bamboo cultivation and harvesting, rather than cutting forests? When it comes to forest products, such as flooring, furniture and paper, “There is FSC-certified bamboo that has been certified by the Rainforest Alliance’s SmartWood program, although it’s a very tiny amount,” says Abby Ray of Rainforest Alliance.

“Keep in mind that bamboo is an especially fast-growing tree and water efficient, certainly in comparison to cotton,” says Ben Block of the Worldwatch Institute.

Indeed.

Some bamboo is certified organically grown, and the clothing is made in the U.S. with the approval seal of Green America, formerly Co-op America, which requires fair labor standards. This is certainly a step up from rayon made of cellulose taken from trees, causing deforestation. There are now some certified organic bamboo products from conscientious companies, which are also cleaning up the production process, using less toxic solvents. Bamboosa, for one, is remarkably transparent about its sourcing and processing. http://www.bamboosa.com/index.phphttps://www.bamboosa.com/checklist.php?PID=63 .

While I welcome the FTC’s more vigilant stance it needs more clarification. At a time when consumers are trying to make greener, healthier choices by demanding transparency about the source of food and other products, from farm, forest or mine through processing and delivery, see Patagonia’s Footprint Chronicles for instance, for FTC not to allow companies to say that a fiber made from bamboo is no longer bamboo is facetious.

I say, bamboo feels good and it should. Choose certified organic bamboo fabric and wear with pride and comfort.

Bought 30% recycled printer paper, certified sustainably sourced by Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) at Office Max. A ream is 25% off for Earth Week! Definitely affordable, especially when you print and copy on both sides to save paper.

Friday, April 2, 2010

My One Green Thing Today: Cleaned deep dark tarnish off Civil-War-era silver with old toothpaste, and repaired a beloved but lightly scratched jazz CD. Silver filled the cracks, and I smoothed with a soft cloth. Now the antique is sumptuous and bright, Bill Evans Trio plays uninterrupted, and there was no trauma to my respiratory tract or skin from solvent fumes or corrosive ingredients.

For more info on corrosive metal polishes, see Washington Toxics Coalition, http://watoxics.org/healthy-homes-gardens-1/cleaning-products

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

My One Green Thing, one day last week, was to hire a housecleaning service that claimed to be green. Normally, as a fan of Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickeled and Dimed, I do my own cleaning and expect family members to pitch in, or else!

But there are limits. My husband and I are asthmatic, and highly allergic to dust and soot particles and the dustmites that inhabit them. In the house we've recently moved in to, which has been in my family for generations, there was one small bedroom that hadn't been cleaned in...well, I hate to think. Our son refused to sleep in it out of fear of bugs. Asthmatics are allergic to, well, cockroaches, too.

Out of desperation, I called the one housekeeping service in town that billed itself as certified green. In retrospect and nearly $300 poorer, I should have investigated more.

The good news: The cleaners didn't use ammonia or chlorine, as far as I could tell. That's because there was no noticeable odor, except for a hint of Murphy's soap, after they cleaned two bathrooms and the kitchen and living room floors. Because I didn't speak the 3-woman team's language, nor they mine, I couldn't get specifics on what ingredients exactly they were using.

With an industrial-strength back pack vacuum cleaner reminiscent of Ghost Busters, they did suck up the dust out of the bedroom carpet. They damp wiped the walls and ceilings and removed the thick coating of dust on the blades of the ceiling fan.

The bad news: When they left, I had to clean up after them. Despite the company's claims of effective mold and mildew removal, they left mold and mildew in the shower, large patches of dust on the living room wood floor (I guess they also didn't wash under that rocking chair!) and a dirty closet floor off the small bedroom. And they said I owed $278 for the job, which was $48 higher than the estimate given me over the phone before I booked them.

I paid without complaining until today, when their office called and said I actually owed another $20. Would I pay it? I'm sure that you can guess the answer. I'd been greenwashed!

About Me

A journalist specializing in personal and environmental health and helping consumers identify truly, verifiably green products, I'm currently writing a book full of pleasure- and health-boosting, money- and resource-saving,tips for daily life. For 11 years, I was editor-in-chief of THE GREEN GUIDE and co-founder of thegreenguide.com); I've also been editor-in-chief of Honolulu Weekly, and a senior editor at Plenty and This Old House magazines. Got my start in magazines at Glamour. My writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, Sierra, The Nation,Worldwatch,Sprig.com and elsewhere.
Married (to the irrepressible Green Man) and a mom, I divide my time between my home base of New York City, birthplace Hawaii, and a small wild island off the coast of Brittany, France.